


Welcome Home

by LandofWordsandNonsense (RiaHawk)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caleb's love language is performing insanely complicated arcane feats for those he loves, Gen, OH MY GOD SUCH FLUFF, The Mighty Nein deserve nice things, The rest of the Nein - Freeform, and I am weak, and he loves these assholes so much, bending D&D rules to the breaking point, i want this to happen, or impossible arcane feats, or making up new arcane feats, retirement plans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:35:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26709118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiaHawk/pseuds/LandofWordsandNonsense
Summary: Even if they never knew a real home, all of them know that home is the Mighty Nein. But Caleb wants to give them something a little more.
Relationships: The Mighty Nein & Caleb Widogast
Comments: 4
Kudos: 95





	Welcome Home

**Author's Note:**

> This is really just an excuse for me to briefly sketch some fluff because I would love to see something like this happen. And the Nein deserve some nice things.

“I think the cats outdid themselves with dinner,” Fjord said, leaning back in his chair comfortably. 

“Yeah, it was all super good~” Jester beamed at Caleb as she looked up from her journal. 

“I am, I am glad you liked it,” Caleb said, with the faint, satisfied smile that meant he was really very pleased. “It is something of a celebration tonight.”

“Fuck yeah,” Beau said, taking a swig from the bottle of wine she’d appropriated. “Two necromancers and an Abyssal gate. We kicked all their fucking asses.”

“It’s been a hard week,” Caduceus rumbled gently. “It’s nice to come back to a good dinner and a hot bath."

Yasha hummed a little. "It’s nice to have a place to come back to.”

Caleb’s faint smile broadened a bit, and his hands fluttered a little in excitement. “That is- I want to show all of you something. I have made some alterations to the tower.” He motioned them to follow him, and presently, they found themselves in the entryway. He pointed at a beautifully detailed bronze gear with several sockets spaced around the rim, and a small handcrank near the door. “If the handle is on a blank space, the door will open to the same place that someone last came from. But if it is on a picture-” he indicated some small paintings set in some of the sockets. “It will go to different places.” He turned the handle to point at a painting of a large, spreading tree with lights in the boughs. Then he opened the door, to reveal the front hall of the Xhorhaus. “I have, it is only set to go to a few places now, but-”

“That’s so COOL, Cayleb!” Jester could barely contain her delight, and her tail wound affectionately around his arm without her quite noticing it. “Where else can the door go?!”

“Right now, it is set to open to the Xhorhaus, to the Cobalt Reserve in Zadash, to the Lavish Chateau, and to the Blooming Grove.”

Jester squealed and clapped her hands. “That means I could go see my mama whenever I wanted!” She whirled around and grabbed Caduceus’s arm. “And you can go back home and see your family whenever _you_ wanted!”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Caduceus said, his tail swishing in a pleased manner. “That’s very thoughtful of you, Caleb.”

“I know that sometimes you are homesick…” Caleb smiled shyly at both of them. “And this way, this way you can. And if anyone else wants a door to a place I have neglected, please let me know, I can add it in…” Then he started rummaging around in his pocket. “But that is not the only surprise. I have- there is a way to anchor an extradimensional space. It is very complicated and very, very expensive-”

Veth started a bit. “ _That’s_ what you were spending all that money on! And why you needed a dragon hoard.”

He gave her a fond smile. “Yes. And thank you, thank all of you for humoring me about the expenses-” He found what he was looking for in his pocket, and produced a heavy ring of large platinum keys. “But the… our tower is now, it is a permanent structure. I will only have to cast the spell to change the layout.” He picked out a bundle of three keys and took them off the ring. “It will still, it will reset every dawn, so we will still have all of the supplies and amenities we are used to and do not have to worry about replenishing them. But we can leave things here, and come back even if I have not cast the spell, and you can come and go as you like.” He handed the three keys to Veth. They were all of a similar pattern, though with different bow shapes. One was a metal button, with a bright yellow citrine with a faint streak of green set in the shank. The other two had little chips of ivory instead; one was topped with an engraving of a vial and the other had a little crossbow. “For you, and Yeza, and Luc. Once per day, you can turn them in any lock and the door will open to the tower. No matter where you are, and no one, no one can follow if you do not wish them to.”

He handed out more keys; one with the Cobalt Reserve symbol and a small flake of blue jade, one with the Traveler’s arch and a sparkling sapphire, one with Fjord’s anchor and a chip of aquamarine, one with Caduceus’s scarab and pink quartz, one with a bundle of lilacs and a small opal. The key he tucked into his own pocket had an engraving of a cat above a piece of tiger’s eye agate.

There was a general hubbub of pleased comments and people talking over each other. Veth tugged on his coat. “This is great, Caleb! So we can come and go whenever… what happens if we want to come back and there’s no lock we can put the key in?” 

He beamed at her. He really was quite proud of this part. “If there is, if there is no lock to turn the key in, then press the little gemstone and turn it in the air like there was a door there. Each key has five charges to do this, and they should replenish one every two days. But of course that part is experimental.”

There were more keys on the ring, just in case, with different engravings. The arcane symbol for dunamancy, a little dagger, a hummingbird, a keg that might have had either booze or powder, a fluffy feather, a wand, a halo, a squirrel. A peacock feather. He was well aware he may never take them off the ring, but he’d made them anyway. Just in case.

He tucked it away. “You know, tonight is not just a celebration of the ass kicking. Tonight is, tonight is the anniversary. Of us. Of the Mighty Nein.” He looked around at them, and squeezed Veth’s hand. “I know I have said it before, but....

Welcome home.”


End file.
